Welcome to Quixotic Heights—where stories transcend boundaries, ideas ignite transformation, and the human spiritdares to reach beyond the ordinary.

Today's Quixote is William Bernhardt—an award-winning author of more than sixty books, a master of legal thrillers, and a passionate advocate for writers around the world. From bestselling novels to shaping the next generation of storytellers through WriterCon, his impact on the literary landscape is both profound and far-reaching.

We’ll be diving into his latest work, The Superman Wars: A Battle for Truth, Justice, and an American Icon, and dissectinghis career.

William Bernhardt is the award-winning author of more than sixty books, including the bestselling Ben Kincaid novels and the Daniel Pike legal thriller series. His latest release, “The Superman Wars,” continues his tradition of captivating storytelling that blends sharp legal insight with deeply human stakes. Bernhardt’s body of work also includes historical fiction, poetry, young adult novels, and the Red Sneaker series for writers, which has inspired and instructed a new generation of authors.

A passionate advocate for writers, Bernhardt is the founder of WriterCon—a renowned writers conference—and leads writing retreats, a podcast, a digital magazine, and afree newsletter, all under the WriterCon brand. His influence is far-reaching: more than thirty of his students have gone on to publish with major houses. He is also the president of Bernhardt Books, further extending his commitment tonurturing literary talent.

Bernhardt’s accolades include the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis DistinguishedAuthor Award, and the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award. He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award and has been nominated twenty times in three categories. Beyond writing, his adventurous spirit has led him to activities like paragliding, surfing, and even becoming a Jeopardy! Champion. Hailed by Oklahoma State University as “Oklahoma’s Renaissance Man,” Bernhardt’s creativity, intellect, and passion for storytelling continue to shape the literary landscape. Learn more at www.williambernhardt.com.

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Today’s guest is a man who has lived at the intersection of faith, service, and storytelling. Keith Madsen is a semi-retired minister, an AmeriCorps worker, a mentor to young minds through chess, and an author whose work dares to confront life’s hardest realities while still holding onto hope.

From building schools in Haiti to educating communities about the opioid epidemic, Keith has seen firsthand thebrokenness in the world—and yet, through his writing, he invites us to believe in something more. His stories don’t shy away from loss or suffering. Instead, they transform those moments into seeds of renewal, redemption, and resurrection.

With four published novels through Quill Hawk Publishing—The Sons and Daughters of Toussaint, Searching for Eden, The Bridles of Armageddon, and Fallen Angels—Keith challenges us to ask: What if the world can be better than it is? And what role do we play in that transformation?

This is a conversation about truth, faith, loss, and the quiet, powerful ways hope refuses to die.

https://www.keithmadsen.net/

Keith Madsen writes fiction that combines adventure and romance with stories that dare to think the world can be better than it is. In his writing, the characters are real, but at the same time, they dare to transcend their reality. Keith believes that fiction, to be truly inspirational, must first acknowledge the hard realities of life. The inspirational aspect comes not from such cold realities, but as they become seeds which lead to the renewal of life and resurrection. Keith writes fiction which combines some of the lyrical description of literary fiction with the plot-driven tensions of a thriller. While the central character in his novels is generally male, strong women also play important roles. You will find yourself really liking the people you meet on the journey!

Today’s guest has lived a story shaped by discipline, disruption, and ultimately, deep healing. Charlie Peters wasonce an Olympic hopeful, a young man driven by purpose and promise—until his path was abruptly altered by the Vietnam War. Like so many who served, he returned home carrying invisible wounds, navigating the long and often lonelyroad of healing from PTSD.

But Charlie’s story doesn’t end there—it evolves. Through poetry, he found a voice for the pain that words alone couldn’t capture. His book, Returning Vet’s Saga: The Healing Power of Poetry, stands as a testament to resilience and thetransformative power of creative expression.

And just when you think you understand the arc of his life, another chapter emerges—at age 50, Charlie discovered thatthe identity he had always known wasn’t the full truth. The name he carried, the family he believed was his own—none of it was what it seemed.

From a student who once struggled in school to a published author, from craftsman to creator, from searching toself-discovery—Charlie’s journey is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to reclaim your story.

Charlie Peters has been married for 50 years and has four children, nine grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. He accidentally started writing poetry in 1990 and discovered that poetry proved to be an outlet to release the frustration of PTSD symptoms. He wrote poetry for about ten years. Two of his poems were runner-ups in national poetry contests: “A Man Less Than His Best” and “Stairway.”

Then he shifted his writing efforts to political commentary and satire, and two of his published books resulted from those commentaries: “The National Debt? The Sinking of America!” (2008) and “TEA Time Has Arrived ‘We the People’ Versus Washington Bureaucracy.” (2009).
“Returning Vet’s Saga: The Healing Power of Poetry” is a work that may appeal to those suffering from unexplained moments of anger, frustration, frightening nightmares, and unexplained moments of depression, which a downpouring of tears may accompany. The author experienced all of those symptoms after returning from the military, and the symptoms lasted for about fifteen years before those symptoms even had a name, which we now call “PTSD.” The author found that a sound, a smell, a spoken word, another person's voice inflection, or something as simple as a commercial on television can trigger an episode of PTSD.
There is no magic in poetry. However, the magic comes in putting feelings to paper, coming directly from the heart and completely bypassing the brain. We may not think of ourselves as poets, but if we just let the words flow, we may find that we are, in fact, poets of a special kind.
This book ends with the poem that got it all started.

https://quillhawkpublishing.com/pages/author/charles-peters